The thing is though, that CNN still owes me 40 usd. Why? Well, in my, by now, rather extended life, I have done ONE story for CNN. And no, it wasn't recently. Somewhere in the last century, there was news from Kosovo. The CNN correspondent was on a holiday, his replacement absent, the third guy didn't pick up his phone (or was dead, I really don't know). So they eventually called me.
It went like this. My phone rang, I heard a male voice saying: "Hello, is that Harald Door... (inaudible)..whatever...this is CNN in Atlanta."
I said: "Yep, very funny Chris." And hung up..
I was convinced the caller was Chris Stevens, a rather hilarious correspondent working in Kosovo for The Scotsman and other British newspapers. He was a notorious joker (until he threatened an Albanian guy who turned out to be a violent local rebel commander).
One minute later my phone rang again
"Hey, this is CNN from Atlanta, don't hang up. I am not Chris."
I thought: "D'OH."
One hour later I, nervously, filed a little report over the phone. I never got paid for it (as so often in journalism). A couple of days later, somebody told me that CNN pays around 40 usd. "That's even worse than Radio Rotterdam," I said and forgot about it.
Well, eventually, ten years later CNN has "paid" by linking harryzzz. Check it out here (click on from the blogs at bottom of CNN page and the link will appear)
Harald Doornbos
